SUFFOLK: A 24-hour transport service to take sick newborn babies to specialist care centres is being launched today.

SUFFOLK: A 24-hour transport service to take sick newborn babies to specialist care centres is being launched today.

From today the Acute Neonatal Transfer Service (ANTS), based at the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge, will be providing round-the-clock transport throughout East Anglia to take ill babies to maternity units and specialist hospitals.

The service, which was set up in 2003, uses ambulances specially adapted for babies to carry out both emergency and planned transfers across the region and was previously only available overnight.

David Creamer, from Felixstowe, raised �500 for ANTS through a charity abseil, because the crew transferred his daughter Skyla from Ipswich Hospital to the Rosie in Cambridge for specialist care.

The service is run by a partnership including the East of England Perinatal Network, the East of England Specialised Commissioning Group, the East of England Ambulance Trust and Cambridge University Hospitals.